Jeremy Corbyn 'unaware' of militant group figure

Jeremy Corbyn has said he did not know that a man he stood next to at a wreath-laying ceremony was a senior member of a militant Palestinian group.

Maher Taher, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP), was pictured alongside the Labour leader at a 2014 event in Tunis.

The PLFP was later linked to an attack on an Israeli synagogue. The US and EU consider it to be a terrorist group. Mr Corbyn told the BBC: "I was unaware of any of his background."

He was asked about the latest in a series of newspaper reports scrutinising his presence at the wreath-laying ceremony, which he attended during a trip to a Palestinian rights conference in the Tunisian capital.

"I don't share platforms with terrorists," Mr Corbyn said. "I don't believe in killing people. "I have attended memorial events for those that have died in the sadness of all of these conflicts, and that is my position."

Labour has complained to the press watchdog about newspaper coverage of his trip, claiming that reporting in the Daily Mail, Sun, Times, Daily Telegraph, Express and Metro newspapers had "seriously misrepresented the event" and "underplayed the role of mainstream Palestinian leaders conducting the ceremony".